WSJ What’s News - How ICE Is Tracking Down its Online Critics

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

A.M. Edition for Aug. 4. A Journal investigation finds the government has paid millions to private contractors to track down critics of ICE. WSJ’s Hannah Critchfield says agents have confronted Americans at home and work, asking them to sign letters agreeing their posts “may” be a crime. Plus, SpaceX is set to release its first earnings report, with the rocket company needing strong Starlink growth to fund its ambitions. And ahead of primaries in a handful of states, including a bitter Senate battle in Michigan, WSJ’s Terell Wright explains why some Democratic voters are embracing insurgent progressive and socialist candidates. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Election Day in Michigan as a high-stakes Democratic primary tests whether a progressive and socialist groundswell is spreading to the heartland. Plus, investors await the first earnings report from SpaceX as a public company, and a journal investigation reveals how ICE is weaponizing social media against its critics. They showed up at her workplace to deliver this letter to her, telling her that she may have broken the law with an investigation. Instagram posts that she made in January about an agent. It's Tuesday, August 4th.

I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. President Trump has told his advisors that he's angry with DC U.S. attorney Janine Piro and has discussed ousting her. We report that that comes after her office on Friday contradicted Trump's contention that the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial was damaged by vandals. Instead, her office wrote in a court filing that problems were caused by a botched installation and dropped a case against an Olympian that it had charged with damaging the pool. Nevertheless, Trump doubled down on his vandalism claims yesterday and singled out Piro for criticism. I was disappointed with Janine Piro, really disappointed with

Janine Piro. She folded like an umbrella. A Puro spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House declined to comment, pointing to Trump's public comments about her. 25 U.S. states are banning together to sue the Trump administration over new tariffs imposed last month on more than 80 countries. The administration claimed those duties were designed to combat forced labor. Something the states contend was little more than a pretext to continue tariffs that the Supreme Court had ruled in February were illegal. A White House spokesman said that the tariffs, which are based on a section of 1974's Trade Act instead of Trump's emergency economic powers are legal. Voters in five states are heading to the polls today, including in battlegrounds, Michigan and Missouri,

where congressional primaries are set to pit Democratic socialists against incumbent Democrats. Michigan is home to one of the fiercest such contests as progressive Abdel Al-Sayed squares off with four-time Congresswoman Haley Stevens for an open Senate seat. El Sayed has been endorsed by the United Auto Workers Union, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who lent her voice to this ad highlighting the $30 million in counting that the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or A-PAC, has spent to back Stevens. Billionaires and A-PAC are spending $50 million to stop Abdul, but they can't stop a movement. Money out of? All right. Money in your money.

Medicare for! Despite enjoying support from the Democratic Socialist, Socialist, Socialists of America movement, El-Sayed told the journal that he's, quote, not technically or practically DSA, but that hasn't stopped Stevens, who's declined to engage on questions about Apex support from dinging El-Sahed as an extremist, and she's used her ads to emphasize her centrist appeal. I know things are tough right now, and that Washington is a complete mess. Some people just want to yell about it.

I'm fighting to fix it. The journal's Terrell Wright has been taking the pulse of Democratic primary voters in Michigan and beyond, and he explained how their opinions are shifting. What I noticed most was the desire for change, and this discomfort with the Democratic leadership currently in power in Washington, that they were not doing enough to fight back against President Trump, they were not doing enough to address the economic needs of Americans, and just kind of broadly not really fighting for their communities. That anti-incumbent trend has propelled Democratic Socialists to upset victories this year,

in Colorado, New York, and Pennsylvania, led by candidates that Terrell said are touting policies outside of the mainstream. So obviously, Medicare for All is one of the top issues. It's something that Bernie Sanders has made popular. But what we're also seeing is kind of a suite of other policies that are new to the conversation. For example, I talked to Isaiah Passis in Furndale, Michigan, an independent who says he's more supportive of Democratic socialism because they are the only people who are willing to talk about the construction of data centers for artificial intelligence and fighting back against it. Now, other people had concerns about the ongoing war in Iran. I talked to Christine McClellan of Detroit, who said that she is supporting Donovan McKinney,

a socialist running in Wayne County, Michigan, because he wants to end American wars abroad. I talked to Tamara Ocho in New York, who decided to join the Democratic Socialist Party of America last year. after Mayor Zoran Mamdani won his primary. And she was particularly enthused about Mamdani's first term so far because he campaigned on expanding child care and expanding free buses. Whether those policies and the candidates backing them can win in swing states come November remains to be seen. But for now, Terrell said that a growing number of Democrats are prioritizing passion over practicality. They don't think that the party in its current shape is,

made for them and for their communities. So when someone is coming and saying that they're going to radically change the party, they feel a real sense of enthusiasm and new energy. A few years ago, it used to kind of be a concerning label of Democratic Socialists, but today that same sort of hesitance that voters might have had just doesn't exist because they've tried to give Democrats a chance and they don't feel the Democrats have really taking it. You know, they've lost the 2024 election and the president is back in power. And so if it takes someone who is going to tear the current system down that they view isn't

working for them anyway, then so be it. Almost every poll from Michigan publicly released last month showed El-Sayed with a lead some by more than 10%. We'll have results and analysis on that race and other key contests from around the country tomorrow morning. Coming up, SpaceX prepares for its first earnings report as a public company. We'll look at what investors we'll be watching for and get the rest of the day's market news after the break. A new journal investigation has uncovered how ICE is weaponizing social media against its critics and raising free speech concerns in the process. Investigative reporter Hannah Critchfield says the agency is running around-the-clock digital dragnet to monitor speech that it says could endanger.

its mission. We found that the government has paid millions to private contractors to carry out this work. Those contractors service everything from potential threats to agents to activities that could disrupt ICE's operations. We found that the program has ensnared U.S. citizens and activists groups that alert community members about ICE activity. Contractors carrying out this work prepared daily reports, as well as dossiers on threat actors for the agency, which identify the poster's name, location, date of birth, workplace, social security number, vehicle registration, and criminal history when possible. Our analysis shows that ICE spent more than $250 million on surveillance technology in Trump's

first full year back in office and almost 60% increase from the prior year. Agents have tracked down Americans at work and on the road, asking them to sign letters acknowledging that their online speech about ICE may be a crime. And Hannah spoke with several people contacted in those investigations. We also identified a handful of Americans and even a Canadian who have posted online anonymously and have received notification from a social media company like Reddit that the Department of Homeland Security has requested their information, including their identities. And these citizens don't know the reason that they're being investigated. but some suspected is due to speech about ICE. Some have been told it is speech that the agency has deemed threatening related to immigration. The agency declined to comment on any specific law enforcement investigations. Civil rights lawyers and former DHS staffers say that approach has swept up people expressing opinions that are protected by the First Amendment. An ICE spokesperson said its methods respect the Constitution and civil liberties, while DHS says the effort is aimed at protecting agents and their families from coordinated campaigns that fueled an 8,000% spike in death threats since Trump took office.

We've left a link to the full WSJ investigation in our show notes. We're exclusively reporting that Anderall Industries is in talks that could see a Maryland port become the production site for its drone boats. The site in Baltimore County, once housed industrial juggernaut Bethlehem Steel and now serves as a fulfillment and logistics center for retailers like Amazon and Home Depot. The potential investment, which could still unravel, follows a fresh funding round that saw California-based Anderol valued at more than $60 billion as it pushes to double its production of weapons systems.

Well, shares of fellow Tolkien-inspired defense tech player Palantir are rising off hours after the company reported a near doubling of its second quarter revenue. Speaking to investors, CTO Shom Sankar talked up the U.S. military's rapid adoption of its Maven command and control system, which has seen recent action in Venezuela and Iran. Over 25,000 builders, uniform service members, civilians, contractors, and companies are developing agents and applications in and on the platform at the speed of war. And for all that growth, our Department of War trailing 12-month revenue is still less than 25 basis points of the Pentagon's budget. Sankar in May said that Maven's use by the military had doubled since December and

quadrupled over the year prior. Meanwhile, investors are counting down to SpaceX's inaugural earnings report. After making quite the splash with its record-setting June IPO, the rocket maker has since lost over a trillion dollars in market cap. A trend that reporter Becky Peterson says has investors focused on its cash cow Starlink satellite business as well as signals about whether AI-related spending is about to soar. When SpaceX was a private company, investors were obsessed with its Starlink internet business. And that's because it was adding new subscribers at a really rapid clip.

In the first quarter of 2026, they doubled their subscribers to Starlink compared to the same period last year. So that's a really high growth part of the SpaceX business. And that's what gave it its big valuation on the private markets before it merged with XAI. Now, though, they have XAI, and they're saying AI is the future of the business. So like other public companies, Google and Tesla, they're going to be spending a lot of money on expansion into AI. And if those other companies' earnings are any indication, there's probably going to be some interest in how much money exactly is SpaceX spending and what's their free cash flow. And for more on what to watch when SpaceX reports after the closing bell, check out Becky's full interview on our Tech News Briefing podcast. Toyota's outlook is taking off as the Japanese.

company's carmaker reported a 76% rise in its first quarter net profit on tailwinds, including increased sales of its hybrid electric vehicles. Toyota has been taking steps to expand its production capacity in the United States, and has said it'll move production of its top-selling mid-sized pickup the Tacoma back to the U.S. from Mexico by 2030. And higher oil prices are lifting the fortunes of Saudi Aramco and BP. Aramco reported a 33% jump in second quarter profits this morning, despite seeing lower sales volume because of disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. BP, meanwhile, was boosted by strong oil trading performance as the Springs' scramble for jet fuel and diesel created ideal conditions for the

company's traders. And that's it for what's news for this Tuesday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer was Daniel Bach, and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening. You know, I'm sorry. Thank you.